St. Vincent is expanding its services and its locations and, as was announced Monday by the hospital, that will soon include Crawfordsville.
Crawfordsville will be one of the locations for three new St. Vincent Ambulatory Care Centers, which will provide increased access to non-emergency care. These new centers will offer primary care, urgent care, imaging, physical therapy services and access to St. Vincent’s key specialties.
St. Vincent is currently doing a full interior and partial exterior renovation of the old Staples building, 1684 Bush Lane, to house this ambulatory care center. It is expected to open early 2017.
“Improving health outcomes for Hoosier families means providing convenient ways for them to access the care they need, when they need it,” said Jonathan Nalli, CEO of St. Vincent and Ascension Indiana Market Executive. “Each of these St. Vincent initiatives is focused to better meet the needs of patients we are privileged to serve.”
Turner Construction applied for an Improvement Location Permit for the Ambulatory Care Center on April 8, 2016. At that time, they believed cost of construction would be $3.5 million for the renovation of the more than 23,000 square feet of space. The City of Crawfordsville approved the
permit May 12.
“It’s a good sign,” said Mayor Todd Barton. “It’s a sign that the community is growing, and it should be a positive move for the community in general.”
The St. Vincent Ambulatory Care Center will offer some of the same services that Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health - Crawfordsville also provides such as imaging services.
“I think the market here is big enough to house two providers,” Barton said. “And as it does for all of us, competition forces us to bring our best to the table.”
The other two Ambulatory Care Centers will be located in Brownsburg and Plainfield. Each of the three locations will give patients access to St. Vincent’s specialties, including Level I Trauma at St. Vincent Indianapolis, cardiovascular care through the St. Vincent Heart Center, women’s services and advanced pediatric care through Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital.
“I think anytime we have an option in healthcare, it’s a good thing for the community,” said County Commissioner Jim Fulwider. “With the way insurance works today, having St. Vincent’s here might mean more people can get treated locally. This gives us the potential for more jobs to become available for local people or for more professionals to move into the area.”
Monday’s announcement is part of St. Vincent’s major initiative to expand health care access throughout central Indiana with the creation of eight new emergency hospitals along with the three new ambulatory care centers. The goal of the initiative is to help meet the demand for emergency services in the Indianapolis area with the new emergency hospitals, while the new ambulatory care centers will offer convenient access to non-emergency healthcare needs. St. Vincent is a member of Ascension, the nation’s largest Catholic and not-for-profit health system.
